Govt still pursuing with Centre to fully exempt Meghalaya from CAA

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaMay 11, 2022

Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong on Wednesday said the state government is still pursuing with the Centre for ensuring Meghalaya is fully exempted from the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)

Tynsong told reporters that the CAA has been exempted from the Scheduled areas of Meghalaya due to the pressure made by the state government under the leadership of the Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma along with all the political parties of the Northeastern states.

However, the remaining 3 percent which is known as the European Ward still falls under the CAA.

 “Right now, we don’t have even a single so-called person from outside India who applied for citizenship in Meghalaya,”he said

Tynsong said the state government had already submitted a memorandum on the matter in line with the stakeholders, civil societies, NGOs, Synjuk Ki Rangbah Shnongs and Nokmas for exempting the entire state from the purview of the CAA.

“Therefore, we are still pursuing this and we are yet to receive any communication from the Centre,” he informed.

Meanwhile, the deputy chief minister further assured that the MDA government is committed to also pursue with the Centre for immediate implementation of the Inner Line Permit (ILP) system and inclusion of Khasi and Garo languages in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India.

“We keep pursuing this matter, not only ILP, even the language issue. Again we are following it up with the government of India and we will not sleep over these issues which are burning in the state of Meghalaya,” Tynsong asserted.